the name is how our middle daughter used to introduce me to some of her friends (sad but true!)

Monday, November 26, 2012

an awful lot has changed in 40 years!

At the end of next
month, Moira+I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary.

Sometimes, the
forty years seem to have passed by in a flash and, at other times, it seems an
absolute age since our wedding day.

I remember being
given Alvin Toffler’s book “Future Shock” as a (sort of) wedding gift by an
American student friend, Mark Lang. It was written in 1970 and mine was a third
re-print published in 1972 (and the price on this paperback was the princely
sum of 50p – decimalisation had been introduced the previous year!). I recently
came across the book again and decided to re-read it (if I recall correctly, I
actually only read about half the book first time round)… and what a
fascinating read it proved to be. As you might anticipate, although he did put
his finger on a number of key indicators, there’s been much other stuff that he
failed to touch on. For example (and very surprisingly in my view): any
reference to climate change – in whatever form you might want to address it (or
any significant reference to the environment in general) – was almost entirely
absent… the closest he came to touching on the subject was in a throw-away line
about pollution when he added (almost as an after-thought): “perhaps even melting
the polar icecaps”. He failed to predict (amongst other matters) how personal
computers and the internet have come to dominate our lives – although, towards
the very end of the book he did say this: “As computerized information systems
ramify… it would tap into a worldwide pool of data stored in libraries,
corporate files, hospitals, retail stores, banks, government agencies and
universities”.

The book made me
realise just HOW MUCH had changed over the intervening 40 years… so much so
that I kept scribbling notes, inside the back cover, of the number of new
things that had become part of lives during the course of marriage (note: NOT
introduced specifically to keep our marriage “on track”, you understand!).
Toffler, and the experts he quoted, seemed to think that some form of robotics
was going to rule our lives by this stage of the 21st century.
Little did he know (well, not in the way they had anticipated anyway)!

Obviously, the list
is far from being comprehensive – but, once I’d started scribbling, it was very
difficult to stop! These are just a FEW of my items (in no particular order…
read slowly and digest!):

2.Personal
computers (whoever would have thought!? I recall a brand new, HUGE computer
taking over an ENTIRE floor of the architectural block at college at this time
for a massive project undertaken by final-year town planning students… but all
it was able to do was to produce punch-cards!). And to think, Moira+I both HAVE
to have a computer (what would my parents have thought?)!

7.Social
network sites which allow us to communicate with hundreds of friends… facebook,
twitter and the like.

8.Communication
generally (eg. Skype which is something
that used to be predicted in sci-fi cartoons when we were children - except
that we saw it in terms of telephone lines and televisions rather than
computers). Ironically, although there are so many ways of keeping in touch,
many of which are totally brilliant, many of these things also cause more
isolation.

9.SatNav
systems.

10.Digital
books.

11.iTunes,
MP3-players – “downloading” music, radio programmes etc.

12.Instant
global news.

13.Instant
publishing/blogs/websites (surely not!).

14.Television
channels (and iPlayer technology) where you can watch programmes at times
convenient to YOU.

15.Globalisation
– with all its benefits and ALL its downsides.

16.Travel and
mobility (the world has become a very small place).

17.Disposable/throw-away
society – rather than mend+repair.

18.Terrorism/suicide
bombers.

19.Society’s changing
attitudes towards gays/same sex marriage etc.

20.Offices
without “designated” typists (and the changing face of the “typewriter”)!

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About Me

Married to Moira with three daughters (Ruth, Hannah and Alice) and six grandchildren (Ursula, Jemima, Rosa, Dan, Iris and Mikey). Former architect and also worked with young people in education in recent years... now just a retired slacker.